# FTP, FTP/S support (vs SFTP, WebDAV)

**URL:** <https://kopia.discourse.group/t/ftp-ftp-s-support-vs-sftp-webdav/3920>\
**Category:** Feature Requests\
**Created:** [April 28, 2025, 9:51pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/ftp-ftp-s-support-vs-sftp-webdav/3920 "2025-04-28T21:51:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![97b4958b055b](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/9/47e85d/32.png) [@97b4958b055b](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/97b4958b055b)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 9:51pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/ftp-ftp-s-support-vs-sftp-webdav/3920/1 "2025-04-28T21:51:41Z")

</div>

_(Source thread: [How does kopia repo sync-to works?](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/how-does-kopia-repo-sync-to-works/201))_

> [@How does kopia repo sync-to works?](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/how-does-kopia-repo-sync-to-works/201/4):
>
> Also requesting simple FTP access again 🙂 It’s fine for LAN use…especially when the data is already encrypted.

* * *

Potential packages for integration:

> **[ftps package - github.com/kardianos/ftps - Go Packages](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/kardianos/ftps)**
>
> Package ftps implements a simple FTPS client.

> **[goftp package - github.com/secsy/goftp - Go Packages](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/secsy/goftp#section-readme)**
>
> Package goftp provides a high-level FTP client for go.

* * *

[vsftpd](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vsftpd) is relatively trivial to set up. It also supports FTP/S ([FTP over TLS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTPS)). That takes care of encryption in transit. It uses next to nothing for RAM while idle:

![Screenshot_20250428_213624](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/kopia/original/2X/0/08669bc6945ce0d586e605b9c0e421566e28df33.png)

I was rather surprised Kopia doesn’t support FTP/S since SFTP ([Secure File Transfer Protocol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSH_File_Transfer_Protocol)) is a bandwidth/CPU performance killer. It’s just too damn slow for serious consideration in deploying due to the protocol’s crypto overhead even on a 1 Gb symmetrical link with \< 3.5 ms RTT/latency. I went with WebDAV over TLS instead. HTTP/WebDAV-enabled daemons use _far more_ than 1 MB RAM idle:

![Screenshot_20250428_213906](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/kopia/original/2X/b/bf7eb32f862b83edd28c0d788af95bcc3ed4a3cd.png)

That also assumes said daemons have full support for WebDAV-related RFCs (eg: Nginx does not [without third party modules](https://nginx-extras.getpagespeed.com/modules/dav-ext/)). Then I got my _next_ surprise… which wasn’t quite so trivial:

> [@Bug: KopiaUI v0.19.0: WebDAV: Unable to authenticate against SHA256 Digests/RFC 7616 (HTTP userhash extension)](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/bug-kopiaui-v0-19-0-webdav-unable-to-authenticate-against-sha256-digests-rfc-7616-http-userhash-extension/3817):
>
> tags: webdav, auth, authentication, digest, htdigest, realms, rfc-7616, rfc-2617, rfc-1945, sha2, sha256, hashing, salting, encryption, encrypting, user accounts, message-digest-algorithm, lighttpd, mod\_webdav, mod\_auth, mod\_authn\_file, auth.backend I’m unable to connect KopiaUI to a WebDAV target. The endpoint runs Lighttpd (1.4.69) using mod\_authn\_file htdigests. It is configured to use SHA256 hashing. It also uses RFC 7616’s HTTP Digest auth userhash extension.[1] Note RFC 7616 (2015) obsol…

**In other words** Kopia v0.19.0 is not suited for production deployment in conjunction with a WebDAV endpoint running on a forward-facing server. Put it behind your VPN at a minimum.

* * *

FileZilla Pro works for testing all three methods (SFTP, FTP/S, WebDAV (sas HTTP userhashes)). The F/OSS edition of FileZilla supports SFTP, FTP/S.

> **[The Universal File Transfer Tool for Mac, Win and Linux](https://filezillapro.com/)**
>
> Transfer files from your computer via FTP / SFTP / FTPS and Cloud Services: Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Box, Dropbox, Google Cloud, Google Drive, Microsoft Azure, OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint, OpenStack Swift and WebDAV.

> **[FileZilla - The free FTP solution](https://filezilla-project.org/)**
>
> FileZilla - The free FTP solution for both client and server. Filezilla is open source software distributed free of charge.

[https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-setup-ftp-server-with-vsftpd-on-ubuntu-20-04/](https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-setup-ftp-server-with-vsftpd-on-ubuntu-20-04/)

[![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/kopia/original/2X/9/9e0919b65af95edd2341b2cf21a6783aad0aff61.jpeg "How to install an FTP Server on Ubuntu 22.04 with VSFTPD") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNjOSY-wcb0)

* * *

> [@FTP and FTPS repository?](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/ftp-and-ftps-repository/3046):
>
> Didnt know there was this forum. So I posted this on Github yesterday. Anyway, Im reposting it here, because it seems to belong here: Hello, Germany’s most popular brand of routers is AVM FritzBox. FritzBox offers NAS features for a home network (= ideal for storing an on-site backup) and is accessible via SMB, FTP and FTPS. Could kopia please support SMB and FTP(S) repos? Unfortunately, kopia only does SFTP which is not supported by AVM FritzBox. Thank you, JAN

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nixcamic](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/nixcamic/32/479_2.png) [@nixcamic](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/nixcamic)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 9:40pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/ftp-ftp-s-support-vs-sftp-webdav/3920/2 "2026-09-09T21:40:57Z")

</div>

I would second this! The data is already encrypted, and I usually use Kopia over a VPN anyhow, which is also encrypted, so a third level of encryption seems kinda silly. However even if we do only want encrypted protocols, FTPS outperforms SFTP.